Lloyds ‘stronger’ despite £3.5bn loss
Part-nationalised Lloyds bank has posted total losses of £3.5bn for last year, but says it is “in a significantly stronger position than it was 12 months ago”.
The losses, which compare with a £281m profit the previous year and are driven by a £3.2bn hit to tackle the payment protection insurance scandal, are nearly twice the size of those at fellow state-backed bank Royal Bank of Scotland.
However, stripping out the PPI charge and other one-off costs, the 40 per cent state-owned bank made a £2.7bn profit in 2011, up 21 per cent on the same measure in the previous year.
Lloyds said its total bonus pool for last year was £375m, down 30 per cent against 2010, with the average bonus of £3,900 for each of its 100,000 staff.
In contrast to RBS, Lloyds, which has no investment banking arm, has managed to duck the bonus row so far, after its chief executive, Antonio Horta-Osorio, waived his bonus following an extended absence due to ill-health.
The news of Lloyds’ losses comes a day after the state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland recorded a fourth quarter loss of nearly £2bn.
RBS still paid out almost £1bn in bonuses to staff in 2011.
But RBS boss Stephen Hester told Channel 4 News the bank has clawed back bonuses from at least 36 employees this year.
And on Monday, Lloyds made public that it would be clawing back £2m from 13 executives involved in the mis-selling of PPI.